How can we tell if breast milk has spoiled?
Some mothers need to pump their milk for when they are not available to the child, which is important for the baby’s health, but they should also take care of their milk’s quality. There are various methods available in this section ofSelMagz.These methods show you whether the milk is fresh or spoiled. Fortunately, identifying fresh milk is easy, and you can enhance your accuracy.
Method One: Testing the Milk
1. Don’t be afraid of strange colors and textures in your milk.
It’s completely normal for your milk to change in color and texture, which indicates a need to adjust the baby’s diet; appearance alone is not a good basis for assessing milk quality.
- So, it’s entirely normal for your milk to have a yellow, blue, green, or evenbrownish hue.It may also be that the thick and thin layers of your milk have separated, which is not dangerous, but you should mix them to achieve the same consistency.
- 2. Be cautious with milk that has been out for more than three days.
Milk outside usually lasts longer, but for completely natural milk, the situation is a bit different, and you must ensure to use fresh milk.
This milk should not be kept outside the fridge for more than three hours.
- Of course, if your room temperature is cool, you can keep it out for up to six hours, but it’s best not to take risks.
- 3. To check for sourness, you must taste it.
Sour milk has a very strong flavor, and its smell resembles spoilage; the only way to check is by tasting it.
4. Don’t worry about a soapy smell in the milk: Some mothers notice that their milk might have a metallic or soapy smell after a few hours, but this taste or smell is not a sign of spoilage, and most infants don’t mind it. If you see your child avoiding it, you can boil it lightly to remove the unpleasant smell.
Method Two: Preventing Sourness1. Place it at the back of the fridge:When you keep milk near the fridge door, the chances of it encountering warmth and contamination increase, so it’s better to place it at the back of the shelf to reduce exposure to damage.
2. Store the milk in a completely sealed container:
It’s very important for the milk container to be airtight to minimize air exposure.3. Label the milk with the date:
Write the date when the milk was pumped and stored on the bottle so you know which one to use first.4. Freeze the milk:
If you don’t plan to use the milk within the next five to eight days, you should freeze it, and you can use it 24 hours after thawing.The freshness of the milk depends on how often you open and close the fridge door.
Don’t use the microwave to heat milk: You can hold the bottle under warm running water and avoid boiling it all at once.
It’s completely normal for the cream to separate after warming: Gently shake the container to ensure the milk is uniform.
- What spoils breast milk?
- Under certain conditions, breast milk may spoil and lose its pleasant and suitable taste, so mothers should aim to avoid such situations.
- Pregnancy:
If a mother becomes pregnant while breastfeeding, her milk quality may suffer due to
hormonal changes
in her body.Emotional distress:
A mother who is not in good spirits, crying often and feeling sad or suffering frompostpartum depressionmay not be able to provide quality milk to her baby.
Unhealthy foods:
A breastfeeding mother should eat healthy and nutritious foods. If the mother turns to junk food orsoft drinks,the quality of her milk may decrease. Foods like
broth,
barley soup,and Halim are the best foods to enhance mother’s milk.Intimacy:During breastfeeding, a mother should reduce the frequency of intimate relations, as this can increase body heat, leading to unpleasant smells and reduced milk quantity.7 Characteristics of Good Breast Milk:1- The thickness of breast milk should be balanced.As previously mentioned in SelMagz, to check the thickness of milk, drop a drop on your nail. If it stops moving, your milk is good and balanced; if it runs, it’s thin, and if it doesn’t move at all, it’s thick. For the baby’s growth, it’s essential to have balance between the protein-rich portion and the watery portion of the milk.
2- The quantity of milk should be moderate.
Excess moisture can lead to more milk production, creating a vulnerability to infections. Dryness can also decrease milk production. For the baby’s optimal growth, it’s important for the warmth and humidity levels to be adequate and balanced. Both excessively damp and overly dry milk are unsuitable for the child’s growth.
3- The color of the milk should be completely white.
The color of breast milk should be white. If it has a yellowish tint, it signifies excess heat and bile, and if it is greenish or dark, it indicates coldness and dryness. Such milk is unsuitable for the child’s growth.
4- The flavor of the milk should be proper.
The taste and smell of breast milk depend on the mother’s temperament and lifestyle. If the milk tastes bitter or salty, it is not suitable for growth, and infants will likely refuse to consume it.
5- The milk should have a pleasant aroma.
Milk is suitable for a child’s growth if it has a pleasant smell and does not smell sour or bad, nor should it be odorless.
6- The foam on the milk should not be excessive.
If you notice that your pumped milk has too much foam, it indicates excess gas in your body. This gas passes through the milk to the child and may cause colic. To address gas, the mother should improve her diet and use herbal remedies that combat
gas.
7- The components of breast milk should be consistent and similar.
Breast milk should be uniform. To achieve uniformity, the mother should consult a doctor and use digestion-supporting herbs.
Ways to Thicken Breast Milk
To achieve thicker milk, you should:Avoid intense exercise.Avoid
stress.
Adequate sleep impacts breast milk thickness.
Eating nutritious foods is necessary to thicken breast milk.
Reasons for Low Milk Supply in Some Mothers
- High body heat:
- For high body heat, the mother should consume cool-nature foods and cool her breasts with cold water compresses.Body coldness:To treat body coldness, the mother should eat moderately warm foods; it is better to consume
- carrots
- and their seeds and
apply chamomile oil in a circular motion from the base of the breast downward.
Weakness due to low food intake:
In this case, it is recommended for the mother to consume foods containing barley, wheat bran, and legumes along with fennel seeds
and dill,
black seeds,andfresh fish.Storing Breast MilkPreventing Spoilage of Breast Milk
Storing Breast Milk Properly
Methods for Storing Breast MilkCare for Breast MilkCharacteristics of Good Breast MilkCare for Breast MilkProper Storage Methods for Breast MilkEffects of CoffeeSpoilage of Breast Milk
